Blood and Honor (6.10)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
6
8%
9.0 (Excellent)
14
18%
8.5 (Very Good)
25
31%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
24
30%
7.5 (Decent)
8
10%
7.0 (Average at Best)
1
1%
6.5 (Not So Good)
0
No votes
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No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
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Total votes: 80

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J.J. Walters
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Blood and Honor (6.10)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for Blood and Honor (6.10). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 11/21/1985
A security leak concerning a top-secret nuclear submarine has Magnum plumbing the depths of the naval base's chain of communication.
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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J.J. Walters
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#2 Post by J.J. Walters »

A decent episode. It's nice to see TM in uniform again, something not seen very often in the show. Neat to see a young Dennis Haysbert before he became a star. Great fight scene with Magnum. TM knocks the snot out of him. And I like the KKC bed race!
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frog480
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#3 Post by frog480 »

I loved the bed race sub story, when TC says he's seen TM in his navy uniform.

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eegorr
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Series continuity flub?

#4 Post by eegorr »

James, on your page for this episode you mention that Paul Burke played Vice Admiral Hawkes in Did You See the Sun Rise?, which is true. Problem is, a Vice Admiral outranks a Rear Admiral, which means one of the following:

1) Blood and Honor is a flashback episode, meaning that the events actually took place before the events in Did You See the Sun Rise?, which aired more than 3 years earlier (not likely).

2) Admiral Hawkes was reduced in rank for some unexplained reason (not likely).

3) One of the writers (Mike Vejar?) was not clear about ranks in the US Navy (not likely -- I'm sure they had Navy advisors).

4) It is a continuity flub! :wink:

Also, I find it quite interesting that Bellisario, who was the writer of both Memories Are Forever and Did You See the Sun Rise?, and Ray Austin, who directed both of these episodes, decided to change his name from Kerchner to Hawkes when these two episodes appeared so close together -- less than a year apart!

I wonder what their reasoning was in changing his name?

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#5 Post by J.J. Walters »

Yeah, I screwed that all up didn't I. :?

Here's the deal - In Sunrise, Hawkes was an 'Admiral' (4 stars) as identified by his rank insignia. In Blood and Honor, he is credited (in the episode credits) and addressed (by Magnum) as an 'Admiral', but his rank insignia and name tag identifies him as a 'Rear Admiral' (2 stars)!

Since his onscreen credit is 'Admiral', he is addressed as 'Admiral', and he was an 'Admiral' previously (in Sunrise), I've changed his credit to 'Admiral' in the episode guide.

Either that or the poor guy was really demoted, but he really wants people think he's still an Admiral. ;)
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#6 Post by eegorr »

James J. Walters wrote:Yeah, I screwed that all up didn't I. :?
I don't think it was you that screwed it up, it is how the credits appear on the IMDB site as well. I didn't even think to look at the insignia on his uniform.

I wonder what the script says?

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IslandHopper
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#7 Post by IslandHopper »

Additional Flubs for "Blood and Honor."

When Magnum and Alex leave her apartment in her car, she drives Magnum to Admrial Hawkes' office, which is being guarded by a Marine sentry (Magnum is narrating). The next shot is of a Navy Enlisted Service file. The camera then cuts to Magnum opening the file to the first page which is a DD-214, which is the service record for a member of the military. In this case, the service record (DD-214) he is looking at is his own as you can see his name (Magnum, Thomas Sullivan) in the upper left hand corner. The fact that Magnum is reviewing his own service record is confusing because in his narration he is talking about Andy (Adm. Hawkes' son), which leads you to believe that he is reviewing Andy's service record looking for clues as to why he would be leaking the top secret information. :? It is possible that Magnum was looking at his own record to determine his status and to find a way out of his current active duty status. The DD-214 appears to be authentic, however, the problems or flubs with the DD-214 are:

1. Magnum's date of birth is listed as 5-7-1947, which contradicts the DOB's identified in "Memories are Forever" and "Try to Remember";

2. Magnum's pay grade appears to be listed as O-10 (difficult to tell as it is a little fuzzy), however, as a Commander, Magnum's pay grade should be O-5, not O-10;

3. Magnum's SSN (upper right hand corner of the DD-214) is different than the SSN identified in "Memories are Forever." It is difficult to tell the SSN exactly, as it is a little fuzzy, but the SSN here appears to start with 571- and is definitely not the same SSN as identified in "Memories are Forever";

4. The section of Magnum's DD-214 that lists his decorations, medals, badges and citations only includes: (i) Vietnam Campaign, (ii) Vietnam Service, and (iii) Purple Heart. It fails to mention Magnum's S.E.A.L. qualification and badge or his Surface Warfare Badge that he wore on his uniform in the pilot episode. Magnum's other ribbons are not listed either.

5. YOU NEED TO WATCH CAREFULLY FOR THIS NEXT FLUB. As Magnum turns to the next page in the service record, you will see that it has nothing to do with military service at all. It is a trial docket from June 1984 regarding a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit. This was obviously added as filler for the file, but you can tell that it is a trial docket and has nothing to do with military service. :shock:

"Blood and Honor" is one of my favorite episodes from season 6. It involves a good mystery/espionage plot. The writer(s) cleverly lead you to believe in the beginning that Alex is the source of the leak of the top secret information. It also provided a great fight scene between Magnum and Dennis Haysbert's character (Lt. Jameson).
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#8 Post by SelleckLover »

eegorr wrote: I wonder what their reasoning was in changing his name?

I was speaking to my husband, who works occasionally as a movie extra (you can actually see him in "Mighty Ducks Part II"), and has written movie and various television scripts (all unsold, BTW) and he says that sometimes there are legal implications in using names. That's why you sometimes see the names of characters are the same as some of the crew members. (The name Doc Ibold comes to mind...Douglas Ibold was part of the crew for Magnum.) They may have had to change it for legal reasons, and since back then you only saw an episode once, (or twice if you were lucky) the continuity didn't matter as much. The pace at which television shows are filmed is grueling and they don't have time or money to go back and reshoot any flubs a viewer probably won't catch anyway. I'm only assuming that most viewers are like me.....I don't know who outranks whom in the military (kind of like I don't know what beats what in Poker!). When Magnum was on in the 1980's, I watched it on a tiny 12 inch screen, and couldn't possibly see what written in files, etc.

Some of you were probably very young back then, but I was an adult raising a family in the 1980's. DVD's hadn't even been thought of yet, and a VCR cost between $600-$800 (Too expensive for a family with a modest income to afford.) I remember going to the Video store and RENTING a VCR along with the movies! Bellisario probably never dreamed that the series would have the popularity it still does, and couldn't conceive of it being released to the public on DVD in it's entirety in the next century. We had bigger fish to fry in the 80's....trying to recover from double digit inflation left over from the Carter years, gasoline rationing, and I can go on and on......LOL Anyway, maybe this will explain why there are so many blatant flubs in the episodes. Viewers weren't likely to catch them, so they left them in.

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#9 Post by IslandHopper »

SelleckLover wrote:Some of you were probably very young back then, but I was an adult raising a family in the 1980's. DVD's hadn't even been thought of yet, and a VCR cost between $600-$800 (Too expensive for a family with a modest income to afford.) I remember going to the Video store and RENTING a VCR along with the movies!
SelleckLover,

I was 16 (1982) when our family got a VCR and and I couldn't believe how much it cost. I also remember after we got the VCR, we went to the local video store (no Blockbusters back then), and it cost us $50.00 for a 1 year membership, just for the privilege of renting movies from them. :shock: How things have changed.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#10 Post by SelleckLover »

Right you are IslandHopper. I remember my husband's mother bought a Beta-Max.....you couldn't find movies for it anywhere! They usually had a very tiny section with Beta movies in the movie rental stores. She bought a few for some exorbitant price like $90 each and we still have them packed away somewhere...LOL (We no longer have the Beta player though.) :D

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#11 Post by Shermy »

SelleckLover wrote:Viewers weren't likely to catch them, so they left them in.
Yeah, it's a good example of how perspective has changed. 'Trekkies' basically earned their reputation because they devoted far too much time to an old aspect of pop culture. Of course, today nearly everyone does that, thanks to the internet. So today's producers have the advantage of knowing that their shows will be heavily scrutinized, and can take steps to make sure all their i's are dotted.

And speaking of VHS, there was a time when most new releases were priced at around $95 each! This was considered "priced for rental", but of course everyone would just rent a tape and make their own copy. It wasn't long before studios lowered the price and video stores began selling used copies themselves.

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#12 Post by Doc Ibold »

The odd part about the whole thing was that Beta was (and actually still is) the higher quality of videotape recording/playback.

I work in advertising, and many of the studios that we work with still use Betas!

(Of course this is for commercial use only, but I was still shocked when I started out in the biz when one of my fist (and not to be last) assignments was to pull dubs and put them on a Beta SP!

Of course, the old Beta is going the way of the dinosaur now as technology changes...

Sigh

:wink:

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#13 Post by J.J. Walters »

Recently discovered some interesting trivia about this episode. The "Carole Kai Bed Race" (identified in the episode by a banner closeup) is actually a real ..... bed race! Carole Kai is a well-known local Hawaiian entertainer, recording artist, TV host, and philanthropist. Carole started the bed race in 1974 to benefit the Variety Schools, a local school for children with special needs. The race is apparently still held every year, although it's under a different name now.

For some reason, the episode refers to the race as "The 1st Annual Carole Kai Bed Race" when in fact the race is actually over ten years old!

Also, I found a rainbow. :)

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#14 Post by Coops »

WOOT! Another flub spotted.

When TM and Lt. Jameson go into the bathroom, 2 SP's are posted outside for "security" reason. As an uncovered (i.e. not wearing a hat) officer walks by they both salute him.

1. Navy NEVER salutes indoors unless it's a formal situation (retirement ceremony, awards ceremony, etc...).

2. Navy NEVER salutes any other Navy member that is uncovered. Why? In the Navy as soon as you walk indoors you uncover. That's why the officer was uncovered to begin with. If a Navy member is assigned to an Army or Air Force unit the saluting uncovered rule isn't in affect as those 2 branches salute uncovered and indoors.
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#15 Post by J.J. Walters »

Fantastic flub spot Coops! I've added it to the Episode Guide.

Thanks!
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